Arthur Horace James (1883-1973)
Plymouth, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Prominent Pennsylvania Republican politician and public official. Elected Luzerne County District Attorney, 1919-1926; Lieutenant Governor, 1927-1931; and Governor, 1939-1943. Served as a Judge on the Superior Court of the Commonwealth, 1933-1938, and was a Republican presidential primary candidate in 1940. James was born in Plymouth of Welsh immigrant parents and worked as a "breaker boy" in anthracite coal mines.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Born in Plymouth to Welsh immigrant parents, Arthur Horace James began working life as a "breaker boy" picking slate from coal in the anthracite mines—the hard entry point for many boys in the Wyoming Valley. He climbed from county district attorney to lieutenant governor and a seat on the state Superior Court, then won the governorship in 1939 and even mounted a run for the 1940 Republican presidential nomination. His rise from the breaker to the statehouse embodied the anthracite region's political culture.
Why it matters
His career traces how the immigrant, coal-country working class of northeastern Pennsylvania rose into the highest ranks of state and national politics.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sephaniah Reese
Plymouth, PA · est. 1992
In the coal town of Plymouth, Sephaniah Reese built and drove a three-wheeled, one-cylinder motor vehicle on the streets in 1887–88, making him one of America's earliest automobile experimenters. His machine shop, incorporated in 1888, was also an early bicycle manufacturer. The firm remained a fixture here for more than eighty years.
Abijah Smith & Company
Plymouth, PA · est. 1989
In 1807 Abijah Smith bought 75 acres along Ransom Creek and, with his brother John, began floating anthracite coal down the Susquehanna River on flat-bottomed arks—a trade they sustained for two decades. In 1818 the firm became the first to blast Pennsylvania coal loose with gunpowder, a leap in mining technique. Kept in the family for nearly seventy years, Abijah Smith & Company is remembered as the first commercially successful anthracite business in the United States.
Avondale Mine Disaster
Plymouth Township, PA · est. 1994
On September 6, 1869, fire erupted at the Avondale Colliery near Plymouth, and because the mine had only a single shaft — which doubled as its only escape route — the trapped miners had no way out. The death toll reached 110, including five boys aged twelve to seventeen and two would-be rescuers who suffocated in the attempt. The horror spurred Pennsylvania's legislature to pass safety laws in 1870, among the earliest of their kind.
Amedeo Obici (1877-1947)
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Amedeo Obici arrived in America at twelve, an Italian immigrant with no English, and worked a fruit-store counter before rolling out his own peanut cart on the streets of Wilkes-Barre. In 1906 he and fellow immigrant Mario Peruzzi founded the Planters Peanut Company, and Obici's knack for new roasting and processing methods turned a humble snack into a national brand. Planters' monocled Mr. Peanut became one of the most recognized trademarks in the country, and the company ran its headquarters from Wilkes-Barre from 1925 to 1961.